'Why blame Oldboy?' (original) (raw)

Zinda director Sanjay Gupta says that instead of targeting South Korean film Oldboy, which influenced both the Sanjay Dutt starrer and the Virginia Tech massacre, the wrath should be directed at the gun laws of US.
When did you first watch the South Korean film, Oldboy, that's supposedly inspired the Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-hui?
• That was in 2004.

I had earlier watched three films by Oldboy director, Chanwook Park titled Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Joint Security Area. I've also read the Japanese Manga Oldboy comic by Minegishi Nobuaki and Tsuchiya Garon.
What's the one thing about the film that has stayed on with you?

• Oldboy is a film on threatened violence. It has a sense of impending danger and an anticipation of violence.
Reports of Zinda being under investigation by the Oldboy producers for violation of copyright rules abound on the net...
• That's all bulls**t. Nothing of that sort is happening and there is no point sensationalising stuff.
Does the Virginia Tech massacre proves that life imitates art?
• Instead of blaming the film, we should react against the apathy of the US government. The gun lobby is so strong there that the authorities allow students to command guns online. Why aren't people talking about that? I've read that this student used to write essays on killing people.

Cho's teachers need to take a crash course on how to deal with students. If there is a problem child, teachers should understand and deal with him or her. Why blame a film for his act of depravity?
Are you surprised to find Zinda's name in this controversy?
• Though I find it unnecessary, I really have no serious issues with that. All these connections only go to prove the lack of knowledge of the media. Haven't they watched Michael Moore's docu titled Bowling for Columbine? Moore is up in arms as he dives into the gun debate.
The documentary makes the viewers think that the conventional answers of easy availability of guns, violent national history, violent entertainment and even poverty are inadequate to explain this violence when other cultures share those same factors without the equivalent carnage.
Even Gus Van Sant's Elephant could be interesting in this context. It's about a normal day in high school which ends in a Columbine-esque massacre. Yet, instead of focusing on that, we are just trying to launch a tirade against various forms of entertainment.
priyanka.dasgupta@timesgroup.com